To Lance or Bust
by bluejwrtr
Summary: Sequel for "To Lance or Not to Lance." Lance continues to develop his abilities and gain a better understanding of his place on the team while they continue the seemingly endless fight against Zarkon. Begins with the events of "Shiro's Escape" and continues as an AU version of Season Two.
1. Just a Little Bit of Surgery

**Author's Note: Hey guys! This is a sequel to my story "To Lance or Not to Lance". If you haven't read it, all you really need to know is that Lance has the ability to manipulate quintessence as a result of being so close when the castle's original crystal exploded. This story takes place a while later, after the events at the end of Season One and the beginning of Season Two. It will start with the events of the episode "Shiro's Escape" and deal with some of the events later in the season as well, just with an AU twist.**

 **Constructive criticism, especially what you like and don't like about the story so far, would be awesome as well as any other feedback you'd like to give. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it!**

Chapter One: Just A Little Bit of Surgery

"And we got to meet _mermaids!_ Real mermaids! One of them definitely had a thing for me, too," Lance said proudly as Pidge led them down the hall to the infirmary. He felt at once exhausted and elated. The whole mermaid adventure had been fun but also terrifying, especially the part where Hunk had attacked him. He hadn't liked that at all.

"Why are we going to the infirmary?" Hunk asked. Pidge shrugged.

"I'm not sure. Allura sent me off to get you two right after I finished getting Keith and Shiro back. I didn't have time to see if either of them were hurt, but I guess they must have been since Allura wants us to go straight to the infirmary."

"I hope it's nothing serious," said Hunk, frowning. Lance threw an arm around his shoulders.

"Don't worry, buddy. I'm sure Allura and Coran have it handled."

"Then why do they need us?" Pidge asked. Lance shot her a look. He didn't blame Hunk for worrying, that was just his natural state of being. But Pidge should know better. She was just making it worse.

"I don't know, maybe they just want to make sure we're okay."

Pidge shook her head. "Nope, she would have asked about us if it was that."

Lance sighed. "Let's just get there and we'll find out."

* * *

When they reached the infirmary, Lance had to stop for a moment to take it all in. Shiro was lying on the floor with a nasty looking wound on his side. It was scorched black, but made even worse by lines of bright purple. That could not be good. Only a druid could cause a wound like that.

Allura was kneeling next to Shiro, with Keith kneeling on the opposite side from her. Both looked worried. Only Coran looked over when the others walked in.

"What happened?" Hunk asked. Lance could feel the worry radiating off him, and he felt an echo of it in his own chest. Shiro just wasn't supposed to look so helpless.

"It was Haggar," Keith said grimly. "She got him before he escaped. We landed on the same planet after the wormhole, but there was nothing I could do."

"How bad is it?" asked Pidge. Her fists were clenched and her eyes were wide.

"The physical wound is bad, but the damage to his quintessence is worse," Allura answered. "The cryo pods can't fix that."

"Can you heal him?" Lance asked. Surely she could. Allura was a boss when it came to quintessence.

She hesitated, and Coran jumped in. "The princess' energy was badly drained from trying to rescue us from the wormhole that we were stuck in. She's in no shape to heal anyone."

"But she has to!" Keith snapped. "We can't just let Shiro die!" Lance agreed with him. They had to be able to do something.

Allura sighed. "Coran is right. I just don't have the energy to perform the healing right now." She looked up at Lance. "But you might."

"What, me?" Lance held up his hands. "I have no idea how to heal anybody."

"You healed your lion, and you helped push away Haggar's influence from the others as well as the crystal. This isn't much different."

Keith looked between the two of them. "I don't care who does it, but somebody needs to do something, and fast. Shiro doesn't have long."

Lance felt a little trapped. "But what if I do something wrong?"

Allura stood up and put a hand on his arm. "Your instincts are good. Just do what feels right."

He felt everyone's eyes on him. He liked attention, but not this kind of attention. "Okay, okay, I'll do it." Lance took Allura's place kneeling next to Shiro and carefully moved his hand over the wound. Touching it didn't seem quite right, so he just let his hand hover there.

His hand glowed blue and he pushed his quintessence into the wound. Immediately, he felt resistance as Haggar's familiar tainted quintessence reacted to his. Shiro groaned and shifted slightly, but Lance couldn't afford to look and see if he was awake.

"Careful, you're hurting him!" Keith snapped.

"I'm not trying to." Lance gritted his teeth and sent his quintessence spiraling in blue tendrils, looking for weaknesses in whatever Haggar left behind in the wound. The feel of it made him feel slightly nauseous. He didn't want to think about the damage that she'd done to Shiro's quintessence, but he supposed that he'd have to if he was going to heal it.

"What's he doing?" Hunk asked.

Allura shushed him, then said in a hushed tone, "Think of it like surgery. He has to remove what's causing the damage and then fix it."

No one else said anything, but Lance could feel the doubt hanging in the air. His hand started to shake slightly. So far, he didn't seem to be making much of a difference. He reached out to Blue, who simply sent back the thought, _More._ Lance took a deep breath and sent his quintessence flooding into the wound. He'd never used this much, not since healing his lion. But it seemed to do the trick. The tentacle-like remnants of Haggar's quintessence shrunk away from the glowing blue and rose out of the wound. Lance brought in his other hand and grabbed at it, carefully pulling it away from Shiro.

"Um, Allura? I need something to put this in." The tentacles were writhing in his grip. He winced as one wound itself around his right thumb. It felt slightly like a cat's tongue, at least if cats had acid saliva.

"Right! I've got just the thing," said Coran. He knelt next to Keith and held out some kind of glass canister. Lance reached over and carefully scraped the burning quintessence off of his fingers. He had to blast it with a small amount of his own quintessence to get it all off and into the canister. Coran took it away and Lance turned back to Shiro. This part he was less sure about.

"Come on, Lance, you're doing wonderfully," said Allura. "Just keep going."

He placed his smarting hands above the wound again. Flickering bits of his own quintessence were still floating around, so he sent out a bit more to try and gather them together. He couldn't quite see Shiro's quintessence, but he could feel it in the same indefinable way that he felt his own when he wasn't using it. Lance imagined it as a deep gash, drawing life from Shiro's soul while the physical wound sapped energy from his body. Was he supposed to stitch it back together like a surgeon? That didn't seem right. Blue seemed amused at the idea. No, that wouldn't work.

Shiro groaned again. "Hurry up, his pulse is getting really weak," said Keith.

Lance bit his lip. Okay, he'd think of it like glue. Haggar's quintessence was certainly sticky, so how about his? He used his blue tendrils to feel out the edges of the gash and pictured them sticking there. To his surprise, it worked. He slowly dragged the tendrils and stuck them to the other side, forming a kind of webbing. He continued doing that until the wound was a mass of glowing blue threads.

Lance lifted his hands away and let out a deep breath. He looked at Keith. "How's he doing?"

Keith checked Shiro's pulse. "Better, I think. His pulse is more steady now."

Allura placed a hand on Lance's shoulder. "Let's get him into the pod."

Together, Keith and Lance lifted Shiro up and set him in the pod. When Lance stepped away, he realized for the first time how tired he was. He stumbled back a little and felt someone catch his arm.

"You okay?" It was Hunk, of course. Lance smiled at him.

"Yeah, just kind of tired."

Allura sighed. "We've all had an incredibly long couple of days. All of you should get some rest."

"I'm staying here," Keith said firmly. Allura nodded at him.

"Very well."

* * *

Hunk walked with Lance all the way to his room, catching him a couple times just as he was about to stumble into a wall. "You sure you're okay?" he asked when they reached his door.

Lance tried for a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just need some beauty sleep." He faked a loud yawn. "See you in the morning."

Hunk said good night and left. As soon as Lance closed the door behind him, he flopped on his bed and was out before he could even take his armor off.


	2. Hangover

**Note: Lines in bold are taken directly from the episode "Shiro's Escape". Also, if anyone cares, I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender or anything related to it.**

Chapter Two

Lance woke to a loud knocking on the door. "Lance! Lance, wake up!" It sounded like Pidge. He blinked at the ceiling. His head felt like he'd just taken an astrophysics final at the Garrison and then trained with Keith for three hours.

"Okay, okay, I'm up!" Lance yelled back. "Give me a minute!" He sat up and groaned at the soreness in his joints. Apparently spending a day fighting with a hypnotized Hunk followed by sleeping in full armor was not a good idea. Plus, the hollow feeling that he'd felt after healing his lion was back, gnawing at his insides and making him want to curl up in bed and ignore the world for a few days.

"Don't take too long," Pidge warned. So much for that idea. "Shiro's about to wake up, and he'll want all of us there."

"Go ahead, I'll catch up." Lance looked down at himself and contemplated the task of getting his armor off. Showing up in it would be sure to raise questions, and he didn't want to distract the attention from Shiro. He deserved some major TLC after what he'd been through. Keith probably did too, from the sound of it, though he wasn't likely to accept it from anyone but Shiro.

He slowly stood up and had to close his eyes for a minute and wait for the black spots in his vision to go away. A healing hangover, that's what this was. Lance stumbled into the bathroom and splashed some water on his face. Then he slowly shucked off the individual pieces of his armor and threw them in the bathtub. He sank down to the floor in his underwear and buried his hands in his hair. Blurgh. He didn't want to move anymore, but the others would be waiting for him.

Lance took a few deep breaths and tried to focus on the feeling of the cold metal floor underneath him. His thoughts kept tugging him in all sorts of directions that he didn't want to go in and he did his best to stay anchored right here. He was Lance, he was a paladin of Voltron, and he could go and pretend everything was fine. It didn't matter that he'd just given away a big chunk of his quintessence. Shiro was fine, and so he would be fine. Eventually. If he could just get off the floor and get some clothes on . . .

Blue shoved at him with a concerned nudge. Lance smiled a little bit. Of course Blue knew how he was feeling. That alone made him feel a bit better, at least giving him enough energy to start moving again.

A few minutes later, he stumbled out of his room and made his way to the infirmary. It was empty though. Lance stopped for a moment to catch his breath. The others must have taken Shiro to get something to eat. He checked in the dining room and then the kitchen, but both were empty.

"Really, guys? Just can't make this easy, can you," he muttered. Where else would they be? The control room? All this walking around was taking up energy he didn't really have. Lance sat down on his favorite place on the counter where he usually distracted Hunk from his baking. He tried to force his exhausted brain to think. If he were Shiro and had just woken up from being healed, where would he go? Lance had no idea. He heard a beeping noise and looked up to see Rover enter the kitchen.

"Hey, little guy, not here to blow me up, are you?" Rover flashed his lights at him and spun around in a circle as if he were impatient. Lance sighed and got up. "I hope you know where you're going."

Rover led him down to the Green Lion's hangar and through to Pidge and Hunk's workshop. Allura, Coran, and the other paladins were looking up at a big screen on the wall. Pidge was at her computer and Shiro was sitting with his robot arm hooked up to it with a glowing blue wire. Pidge was saying something about coordinates when Lance walked in.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" he asked.

"Shiro remembered how he escaped," Pidge explained. "Apparently a Galran soldier helped him and gave him some coordinates to go to."

"Which may not be the most reliable information," Keith interjected, his arms folded. Allura also didn't look very happy.

" **It's worth the risk** ," Shiro said grimly. " **If we can locate some allies in our fight against Zarkon, especially ones from his own side, we can find a way to take him down.** "

" **We can check the location, but I do not like this. The Galra are not to be trusted** ," said Allura.

Lance frowned. He didn't entirely understand what was going on. "But if this guy helped Shiro escape, he can't be working for Zarkon."

"Could be a trick," said Keith.

"Kind of a lame trick," Hunk said scratching his head. "I mean, if Shiro hadn't escaped, Zarkon would probably have at least two of the lions right now and none of us would be here."

"Exactly." Shiro stood up. "Like I said, it's worth the risk."

Allura still didn't look convinced, but she led them as they headed up to the control room. Lance winced a little at the thought of more walking, but only Hunk seemed to notice how exhausted he was.

"Still tired?" he asked, waiting for Lance to catch up to him at the rear of the group.

Lance shrugged. "Yeah. That healing took a lot out of me. I'll be fine though."

Hunk looked him over. "Just let me know if you need some help."

"Don't you dare throw me over your shoulder again. I can walk just fine."

Hunk threw up his hands. "Okay, okay. But just saying, I'm totally making your favorite dinner tonight."

Lance smiled at him. "You're the best, you know that?"

* * *

Lance fought to keep his eyes open while they traveled through the wormhole to the coordinates from Shiro's arm. At least he was sitting down now. He just didn't know if he'd be able to get back up anytime soon. Before he knew it, everyone was saying something about an intruder in the castle.

"Everyone, suit up!" said Shiro. Lance groaned internally. He'd definitely left his armor in the bathtub. Maybe he'd have time to run and get it? He pushed past his exhaustion and followed the others out of the control room, sprinting for his room. Before he could get there, he saw a flash of movement down a long hallway.

"Guys, I found him!" Lance called, remembering too late that he had no helmet and therefore, no comms. "Blast it," he muttered. He also had no bayard. But somebody had to take this guy down, and the others were still suiting up.

He took off after the intruder. Adrenaline surged into his veins and helped clear his head. How was he going to take this guy down? Lance reasoned that he only needed to keep him busy long enough for the others to get there. Then it would be a piece of cake. Wham, shiz, kaboom, and the bad guy would be toast.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, Lance passed a crossing with another hallway. He heard something to his right and the next thing he knew he was being body slammed into a wall. His helmetless head made a distinct cracking noise and he slid to the floor, his vision turning into something vaguely resembling an Impressionist painting.


	3. Ulaz

**Author's Note: I apologize that this is a little late. I had so many ideas for this chapter, but this is the one that won out. I blame Keith. He just had to demand his own chapter.**

 **I tried to skim over some of the events of the episode in order to avoid slowing down the story too much. If you haven't watched it in a while, hopefully it's not too confusing. If it is, please let me know!**

Chapter Three

Keith was disappointed in himself. He'd told Shiro to stay back, that they could handle this intruder themselves. And surprisingly, Shiro had stayed out of the fight until it became obvious that the intruder could probably kill them all without breaking a sweat. Then he'd stopped the fight in seconds with one swing of his Galra arm.

Keith crossed his arms and frowned, watching as the intruder revealed himself to be a Galra, apparently one that Shiro recognized. Why would a Galra have a symbol like the one on his knife? It just didn't make any sense.

Allura insisted that they shackle the prisoner and interrogate him. Keith wished that he could do a little private interrogation of his own, but right now the needs of the team were more important. While Allura cuffed the prisoner to a bench in the interrogation room, Keith looked around and realized that they were missing someone.

"Where's Lance?" The other paladins looked at each other.

"I haven't seen him since the control room," Shiro said, frowning. "Did any of you see him during the fight? I thought I heard his bayard."

Hunk scratched his head. "That was probably mine. I didn't see him anywhere, which is weird. Usually he gets right in the middle of the action if he can."

Allura shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we have bigger problems right now. We can figure out what happened to Lance later."

The Galra prisoner cleared his throat. "I apologize for interrupting, but is this Lance a tall, brownish human? I may have encountered him while trying to find you."

Allura's eyes narrowed and she seemed to grow a few inches taller to loom over him. "What did you do?"

"I assumed he was some sort of guard and attempted to neutralize him." Keith ground his teeth at the calm way he said it. "Unfortunately, I did not take into account the more fragile nature of humans."

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked. He had tension in his jaw that Keith recognized as a sign of barely concealed anger.

"Do not worry, I merely knocked him unconscious. He should recover fully."

"I've got to go find him," Hunk blurted out.

"I'm coming with you," Keith said grimly. He and Lance might have their differences, but he had to see that he was okay. But before he and Hunk could leave, the door swooshed open and Lance stumbled in, led by Rover. He was still wearing his civilian clothes, and he was obviously unsteady on his feet. "Hey guys, what did I miss?"

Hunk was the first one to reach him. "Lance, buddy, are you all right?"

He blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

Keith gestured to the cuffed prisoner sitting on the bench. "This guy said that he attacked you and knocked you out."

"Oh, right. That." Lance winced. "We had a little misunderstanding. Who is this guy, anyway?"

"That's what we've been trying to determine," Allura said. The coldness was still in her voice, and she looked torn between wanting to check Lance for injuries or give the prisoner some.

"I told you, this is Ulaz, the Galra who helped me escape." Shiro also looked back and forth between Ulaz and Lance. "Are you sure you're all right? He said that he hit you pretty hard."

"Yeah, and you're bleeding," said Hunk, pointing to a spot on the back of Lance's head. Keith moved a little closer and saw that some of his hair was matted with blood.

"That looks pretty nasty," he observed. Lance shot him an angry look that he was pretty sure he didn't deserve.

"I don't want to talk about it right now, okay? I'll just sit down over here and you keep . . . doing whatever you were doing. What is that, again?"

"An interrogation, I believe," Ulaz said drily. He looked over at Lance. "I am truly sorry for injuring you, but I had to make sure I made it to Shiro to deliver my message."

"Right." Lance looked him over skeptically as he sat down. "Why are we trusting him?"

"We aren't," said Allura, folding her arms.

"He saved my life," Shiro protested. "We need to hear him out."

Keith listened with a mix of resentment and reluctant curiosity as Ulaz explained that he was part of the Blade of Marmora, a group of Galra dedicated to resisting Zarkon. That sounded interesting, but far-fetched. Why had they never heard of this group before? When Ulaz mentioned a hidden base surrounded by the explosive xanthorium clusters, Keith grew instantly suspicious. That sounded like the makings of an excellent trap.

But Shiro remained stubborn, and when they found the space pocket and the base, Keith's curiosity got the better of him. He had to find out if Ulaz was telling the truth. Maybe he had a chance of getting some answers about the symbol on his knife too.

"Lance, you should stay here," said Shiro as they were preparing to leave. Keith looked over at the blue paladin, who had slumped down on the bench and covered his eyes with his hand. That wasn't good. Lance never showed weakness if he could help it.

"Okay." Lance removed his hand from his eyes and made a shooing motion. " **You guys go ahead, I'll hang back and protect the princess**." His attempt at his normal cockiness fell flat when he followed it up with a grimace and quickly covered his eyes again. Keith and Shiro exchanged glances, but neither said anything. Keith knew that making a big deal of it would only make Lance act more stubborn, and Allura would probably be able to take care of him better on her own anyway.

Keith pushed worry for Lance out of his mind and braced himself for whatever they were going to find at this secret base. He needed to be ready for anything.


	4. Staying With the Princess

Chapter Four

Normally, Lance didn't mind being babied. At least when it was his mom or older sister, sometimes if it was Hunk. He had no idea how to handle being babied by an incredibly beautiful Altean princess, even if he was coming to see her as more of an older sister than a potential target of flirting. Or at least a serious target.

Lance dragged his eyes away from Allura's concerned face to glance out the control room window. "Are you sure they're not flying into a trap?"

"I'm almost positive they are," Allura said as she moved around to examine the back of his head. "But Shiro is determined to find out more about this Blade of Marmora, and perhaps he is right that the information is worth the risk." She frowned. "How hard did he hit you? It's bleeding quite a lot."

He shrugged. "It's probably not as bad as it looks." Even though he felt like he'd been run over by a truck, he figured Allura would respect the stoic approach.

"Why weren't you wearing your armor?"

"Umm, well, you know, I might have . . ." She raised an eyebrow, and he stopped stalling. "I left it in my room."

"And why was it in your room?"

Lance winced as she pulled out a bandage from somewhere and pressed it against the wound. "I accidentally fell asleep wearing it last night. Healing Shiro took a lot out of me." He blushed a little bit. Would she get mad at him? Sleeping in your armor was probably a serious breach of paladin etiquette.

She didn't answer for a moment, letting Lance's imagination run wild about all the creative punishments she might have in store for him. She could make him clean all the castle's bathrooms or worse, do all the paladins' sweaty laundry by hand. Lance shuddered a little at the thought. When Allura finally started talking, he missed the first few words of what she was saying. ". . . my fault, really. I shouldn't have put so much pressure on you to heal Shiro."

Lance relaxed. She wasn't punishing him, just apologizing. "No big deal. I was just a little out of it last night and this morning too. That's why Ulaz was able to jump me."

Allura sighed. "Next time, you should really let me or Shiro know that you're not feeling well. We rely on you as part of the team, and if you're not at your best, we need to know so that we can compensate." There was the lecture that he was expecting.

"Got it." Lance smiled. "Does that mean I have permission to complain as much as I want?"

He couldn't see her face, but guessed that she was rolling her eyes. "No. It means that you need to let us know when something is seriously wrong, not when Keith's hair is bothering you or your food goo is undercooked."

"How can food goo be undercooked?"

"You know what I mean. Now, let's get you in the healing pod."

"What?" Lance turned his head to look at her. "I can't go in the healing pod! What if the others are walking into a trap and they need Voltron to get out of it?"

Allura readjusted her grip on the bandage. "I don't know how serious this head injury is, but I don't think you're up to piloting a lion at the moment. The healing pod will help you get back to fighting shape as soon as possible."

Just as she finished talking, an alarm went off and Coran ran into the room. "There's a Galran vessel incoming!"

Allura handed Lance the bloody bandage and ran over to the main controls. "We need to get the others back, now!"

Shiro's voice came over the comms. "Allura, we've spotted a hostile ship and are coming in."

Lance stood up and braced himself against the back of his chair. "I have to go get Blue. They're going to need me."

Allura looked at him, giving him a once over, then nodded. "Please be careful. Stay out of the action as much as you can."

He gave a mock salute and headed for his lion. Dizziness made it hard to move fast, but he knew that once he reached Blue he'd be okay. No way was he going to let his team face a Robeast without him.


	5. FWI (Flying While Impaired)

**Warning: If you don't like cliffhangers, you may want to wait a few days for me to post the next chapter. :)**

Chapter Five

Lance gripped his controls tightly as he listened to the others talking about the oncoming Robeast. Now that he was sitting down, he wasn't as dizzy. His head and his stomach were just competing to see who could be the most annoying. Kind of like him and Keith, actually, although he wasn't sure who was what in that situation. Lance pulled himself out of the somewhat disturbing metaphor just as the Robeast started firing into the space pocket.

"Time to form Voltron!" Shiro said. Lance obediently launched his lion, but as soon as they exited the hangar he was hit by a sudden wave of dizziness. He closed his eyes to try and ride it out and his lion paused in response.

"Lance! We're waiting on you, buddy!" Shiro said. He sounded more worried than accusing, though.

"Coming!" he managed to reply, squinting his eyes open just enough to pilot his lion through the familiar process of forming Voltron. Blue was nearly in position when the whole formation fell apart, sending lions scattering in all directions. Lance knew instinctively that it was his fault. The connection to the others that he normally felt when forming Voltron had been missing.

The Robeast sent a xanthorium-powered beam in their direction, narrowly missing the green lion. Everyone scrambled to get in place again before the next blast.

"We can do this, just focus!" said Shiro. Lance swallowed and clenched his teeth. He had to do it this time, or the whole team was going down. No pressure, right? He took a deep breath and pushed past all the pain and nausea he was feeling to reach out for the others' quintessences. Normally, he felt them all collectively, like a big mass of good team feels. But this time, he was able to pick out each one. Hunk's was the easiest to recognize. His quintessence was solid and comforting, and Lance was able to latch on to it without any problem. Pidge's was more complex, with a feeling of staggering intelligence and determination. It took him a little longer to connect to her quintessence, but when he did he could feel her holding on with tenacity. Shiro's was easy to find, since his quintessence was still tinged with a little bit of Lance's own. Lance used that to push past Shiro's barriers and connect to him too.

Then there was Keith. This would be the hardest. Keith's quintessence was like a burning ball of lightning, full of energy and confusion and fierceness. Lance winced a little as he reached out, praying that it wouldn't hurt too much. He felt a burning sensation and his whole body jerked suddenly, nearly knocking him out of his seat.

When he opened his eyes, miraculously Blue was part of Voltron. Lance heard the other paladins cheering but couldn't quite muster up the energy to add his own. Instead, he focused on just staying upright while they dodged another blast from the Robeast. Now, at least, the others were doing a lot of the work. All he had to do was fly.

His concentration flew apart when the Robeast managed to hit them head on, sending Voltron hurtling backwards and in turn, knocking his helmet against the back of his seat. Normally, it wouldn't have hurt, but now the pain in his head magnified and his vision swam.

"Lance? What are you doing? We're supposed to be flying away from this thing, not towards it!" Hunk said in a voice that seemed way louder than normal. Lance just grunted. He wasn't even sure which way was up anymore, let alone where the Robeast was. Another sudden jolt and the yells of the other paladins made him realize that they must have been hit again. Blue nudged at him, and Lance rubbed his eyes, trying to push the pain away and just focus.

"It's drawing us in now!" yelled Pidge. Why did everyone have to yell just because they were in the middle of a battle? He could hear them just fine.

"Hunk, Lance, we need all the power you can give us!" said Shiro, still too loud. Lance grabbed the control to the thrusters and pulled, hoping it was in the right direction this time.

"It's not working!" said Hunk. Lance began to panic, trying uselessly to coax more power out of Blue. This was all his fault; they were all going to die now because of him.


	6. Intruder

Chapter 6

Keith grunted in concentration as Voltron was pulled in by the Robeast. He was doing everything he could, but as an arm Red didn't have much thruster power. What he did have, however, was a sword. As Voltron reached the Robeast's mouth, Keith activated Voltron's sword as a dagger and struck out at the thing's arms. He felt the reverberation as he made contact and the Robeast let them go.

"Nice job, Keith," said Shiro as they tried to escape. What none of them mentioned was that Lance was clearly struggling to stay alert. Blue's thrusters kept sputtering or even turning off completely, meaning that instead of following a straight course, Voltron was flying like a drunk bird in a thunderstorm. But Keith couldn't really say anything. That was Shiro's job. Plus, if he told off Lance, he'd just make him angry, which would in turn make him even more erratic.

The Robeast had caught up to them again. This time, they used the shield to block the devasting energy blasts and push it back into a mass of xanthorium clusters. They all cheered as the Robeast was swallowed up in a huge explosion.

"Um, guys?" came Lance's voice over the comms. "Can we please head back to the castle now? Explosions are great and all, but I could use a good cryo pod nap."

Keith was surprised. Lance must be feeling pretty bad if he was willing to admit that to all of them.

"Of course, let's-" Shiro's reply was cut off as the Robeast came zooming out of the cloud of debris and headed right for them. Keith swore under his breath as they tried to maneuver away but were caught by another energy blast. Pidge barely got the shield up in time, but they were still sent spinning backwards. The sound of someone retching came over the comms and Keith winced in sympathy.

"Hold it together, guys!" Shiro said all the sudden. Keith realized that the connection that allowed them to from Voltron was weakening. He held tight to his controls and focused on reaching out to the other paladins.

"Watch out!" Pidge cried out as she caught another blast on the shield. "We can't take much more of this."

"Lance, I need you to hold on for just a little bit longer," said Shiro.

He didn't reply. Keith frowned. "Maybe we should separate," he suggested. "Fighting this thing separately might work better."

"No way," said Hunk. "If that thing hit any one of us, we'd be toast."

"We may not have a choice," said Shiro grimly.

"You have another ship incoming!" warned Allura. "Looks like Ulaz came back after all." She sounded surprised. Keith wasn't sure whether to be glad or not. Whose side was Ulaz on?

* * *

Lance was in a pained daze now, completely unaware of what was going on around him.

He wasn't even trying to fly anymore, instead just focusing all his energy on keeping Voltron from falling apart.

Blue jabbed at him, telling him to pay attention to something. A second later, he realized that he was no longer alone. A hand had landed on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Ulaz standing next to him. Lance blinked, unable to even muster a yelp.

"Let me take over, paladin."

"What?"

"Voltron must not be destroyed." Before Lance even understood what was happening, Ulaz had lifted him out of the pilot's seat and set him gently on the floor.

Lance shook his head. "Wait, you can't just . . . Blue's not going to just let you take over."

"She must." Ulaz said grimly.

Lance felt Blue reach out to him in confusion at this intruder. He wanted to tell her to push him out, but he recognized that they really had no choice right now. "It's okay," he whispered to her. She growled a bit more, but then he felt her shift away from him and connect to Ulaz instead. The sudden absence of her quintessence brushing against his brought tears to his eyes. He felt suddenly isolated from not only his lion, but also his team. The pain in his head became unbearable and this time he gave into it, welcoming the oblivion of unconsciousness.


	7. Lance is Not Happy

**Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. I had some massive writer's block, especially after I watched Season 3 and my brain exploded. (Don't worry, no spoilers here.)**

Chapter 7

Lance woke up to an armored hand shaking his shoulder roughly. He opened his eyes to see a very blurry Ulaz standing over him. "Paladin, you must wake up. The battle is over."

He pushed away Ulaz's hand and sat up, keeping a hand over his eyes to block out the light. His head was still killing him. "What happened?"

"We used Voltron as a distraction while I remotely sent my ship into the Robeast and activated the space pocket."

"Oh." Lance squinted up at him. "Great." He felt the irrational urge to push Ulaz away and tell him to get the heck out of _his lion,_ but he just couldn't find the energy. Blue growled at him gently, as if offering to do the job for him. She clearly wasn't happy about the situation either.

He suddenly realized that his helmet was missing and spotted it in Ulaz's hand. "Give me that!" Lance said, snatching it back. Ulaz looked a bit surprised at his tone.

"I apologize. I needed the helmet to communicate with the other paladins." Lance shot a glare at him and slowly pulled himself to his feet. "What are you doing? You are in no fit state to pilot your lion." Ulaz sounded genuinely concerned, but right now Lance really didn't care. He really wanted to flip him off, but knew that the Galra probably wouldn't recognize the gesture anyway.

"You said the battle was over, right? I think I can manage to get Blue back in her hanger just fine, thanks. She practically pilots herself anyway." He slid into his seat and grabbed the controls, smiling a little at Blue's purr of satisfaction. He still couldn't see much, but Blue seemed to know where she was going. Lance put his helmet on and winced as the voices of the other paladins exploded into his ears again.

Hunk was panicking. "How do we know Ulaz didn't just knock him out again? We need to get him out of Blue and make sure Lance is okay."

"Let's get back to the castle first, away from these xanthorium clusters," said Shiro. "Then we'll figure out what's going on with Ulaz and Lance."

"Guys, I'm fine," Lance said as he felt Blue start moving. "Well, I passed out for a little bit there, but I'm awake now." The other paladins all started talking at once, making it very difficult for his concussed brain to make out anything they were saying. "You know what, Shiro's right. Let's get back to the castle and then we can figure everything out. Until then, you're all making my head hurt." He removed his helmet and put it on his lap, out of Ulaz's reach. The Galra soldier stayed silent behind him, which was both nice and creepy at the same time. Lance kept wanting to look over his shoulder to make sure Ulaz wasn't trying anything, but he was having a hard enough time staying upright in his seat as it was. He decided to focus on Blue's directions and shut everything else out until they were back on solid ground.

* * *

Keith and the others hurried to the blue lion's hangar, only to see Ulaz emerge with Lance just behind him, rifle in hand. Ulaz put his hands up when he saw all of them coming.

"I apologize to all of you for taking over the blue lion. Voltron was about to be destroyed, and I saw no alternative."

Keith ground his teeth together. He had a point, but still, the way he'd shoved into the bond they had as Voltron had been a shock to all of them. They'd quickly jumped to the conclusion that Ulaz had killed or at least hurt Lance in order to take over the blue lion. It was nothing short of a miracle that Voltron hadn't fallen apart right there. Thankfully, the Robeast's near-constant attacks and Shiro's encouragement had kept them focused enough to finish the battle before they separated.

Shiro stepped up to the Galra. "Thank you for your help. I think we should apologize for assuming the worst of you."

Keith stayed silent and contented himself with staring daggers at Ulaz. He wasn't going to be apologizing to him anytime soon, and it looked like Pidge and Hunk felt the same way.

"Great. Now that this love fest is over, I'm overdue for a very long nap." Lance lowered his rifle and stepped forward, only to stumble and knock into Ulaz. When the Galra reached out a hand to help him, Hunk quickly shoved him out of the way and got an arm around Lance's shoulders. Pidge followed behind them, leaving Ulaz with only Keith and Shiro.

Ulaz looked between them. "I see that I am not welcome here. If you will lend me a ship, I will return to the Blade of Marmora and inform them of our encounter."

Shiro nodded. "Of course. It's the least we can do after you took out that Robeast for us. But I would like to be able to meet with your leaders if at all possible."

"Me too," said Keith. Shiro raised an eyebrow. "I mean, if you don't mind." No way was he letting Shiro go in there alone. And he might be able to get some answers about his knife as well.

Ulaz nodded. "Very well." He held out what looked like a flash drive. "These are the coordinates to the central base of the Blade of Marmora. But before you go there, you must figure out how Zarkon is tailing you. He cannot find us or even know of our existence."

Shiro took the flash drive. "We won't let that happen."

 **Author's Note 2: So we made it to the end of "Shiro's Escape"! Now, before I continue the story, I would like to know what you guys want to see. Would you like me to continue through the rest of Season Two as I was originally planning, or should I move on to something else? I do have plans for the rest of Season Two, but if no one is interested in reading more, than I wouldn't mind moving on to other things either. Please let me know in a review!**


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